Electronic counting ring



y 1950 E. v.; GULDEN 2,515,448

ELECTRONIC COUNTING RING Filed Dec. 15, 1948 3nveutor ERNEST V. GULDEN(Ittomeg Patented July 18, 1950 ELECTRONIC COUNTING'RI-NG Ernest V, G ldn, O kW o Ohio, assignor to The National Cash Register Qempany, Dayton,Ohio, a corporation of Maryland Application December 15, lccstserial-ut.65,4128

This invent-ion. elates to anelectronio lectric impulse-counting ring, dmore p r y p ,tainsrto onemnloying i i -repre enting gaseous dischare'electron tubes of the type having at least an anode, ,a, cathode, acontrol gridand an auxiliary grid, the control grid being used forpriming a} tubet be; responsive, by firing and becomingconductinawhen anelectri impu is received on its auxiliary grid.

This-impulsecountin ring rfor se incounting electrieimpulse ,,signalsreceivedat. high speed. An early typeofsuch a counting ring was devisedvJoy. Wynn-Williams. and disclosed in Proceedings, oi. the; RoyalSociety (London) 132,295 (1931),, thatri employin aseou discharerelectronptubes.of the triode type includ ns anwanodefa cathod an .acontrol grid, sis; rials and; priming Q tor successive tube operationbothhbeing impressed onthe control grid .Thismven ion employs separat rifor h urimingand.si nalv eceiving functions an ives anadvantage notobtainable in the heretofor isn yrn, rings. in. thatannnprimed tubecannot be fir'edby. an unusually large pulse received on thesignal-receiving grid, This is not true of, rings \vhichq-areprimed. andreceive firing impulses on the same'grid, and such rings may haveerratic operation When: excessively strong signals are received, Thecounting ring of this invention is capable of correct performance undersuch conditions. v

It is, therefore, an-object of this invention to provide .a counter ofelectric impulses comprisingsa'zc reui employin di it-representin gaselotron, tubeshay ng leas n anode, a cathode, a control electrode and anauxiliary electrode, so arranged in a circuit network that only-i a*tube primed on its control electrode by a preceding conducting tube"inthe ring can be fired by an electric impulse impressed on the auxiliaryelectrode of said primed tube.

It is a further object of the invention to provide such a countingdevice in which all priming is done on the control electrodes from apreceding tube in the ring and all firing is done by the auxiliaryelectrodes on which the electric impulses are commonly received.

With these and other objects in view the invention includes otherfeatures of novelty, all coming within the scope of the claims and whichwill be described with reference to the drawing which is adiagrammatical representation of a decimal order of a numerical countingring, part being broken away where the circuit is repetitive.

Claims. (eleme al l v v e 2 efe r ng to-the, drawing, t bes"- 97,. "8?and, "9 arethe digit-representing elements of a decimal counting ring,said tubes each having, as shown inconnectionwith the 0 tube, a cathode.zflhan anode 2] a c ntrol-grid 22 and an..auxili ary..grid.23., 1 Y rWhere the circuit elements are repetitive reference numbers are appliedonly to those-gale! merits ass ciated with th "0 tube t avoid om fusion.v 1

These tubes pref rably are. of. the. typein wh ch he control grid-domi aes, by its position, over. a. d schar betwe n oathodeand an and wh einthauxilia yg id as asubordinate com trol,,may. secondarily aid or preventsuch a dis charge by application of proper potentials there.- to. Suchtubes maybe purchasedirom TheGeneral Electric Gompany. under type,designation GL-5663 or from Radio florporation of, America under, typedesignation. 21321. In describin the circuit it. willwbe assumed thatthey General Electrio tube type (EL-56.6.3 is-beingvused.

Ea h cathode isconnee ed oeround throu h aresistor 24, of, 20,000 ohms,shunted by a ca pacitor 2.5, of. ..005:microfarad, in series'with aresistor 26 of 2500 ohms. Each anode is connected to conductor 2.1supplied with potential of 105 volts pesitivefromsource 2.8 throughresistor 29 of 5000 ohms. When any tube becomes conducting, thedischarge of the ,capaciton its cathode supply circuit causes-1a dropinpotential .oiconductor 2] because of. resistance 29. This an'odedipbringstheir potential towithin about 532. volts. .OffiI'Ql-Hldpotential. Any previously conducting. tube, havin dis har ed. its cahode capacitor, has assumed a potentialv of about .90 volts above groundpotential and W111 be held there by the cathode capacitor as: conductor'21 dipsin potential whenanothen-tub discharges. will cause a. cessationof at show, me: mentarily, in the previously conducting tube permittingits grids to regain control, if properly biased. This extinguishingcircuit arrangement forms no part of the novelty of this invention, butis disclosed and claimed in United States Letters Patent No. 2,401,657,issued on the application of Robert E. Mumma.

Each control grid 22 is connected through a resistance 30 of 1.5 megohmsto negative volt conductor 3! and is connected at point 32 to thecathode of the preceding tube of the ring through a resistor 33 of 1megohm.

Each auxiliary grid 23 is connected through a resistance 34 to anegative 30 volt conductor 35 and is coupled through a capacitor 36 of10 microiliary grid electrode is of importance.

ohms and a switch 38 to a negative 100 volt source.

of supply. As the 0 tube becomes conducting any other then conductingtube is extinguished in the manner before described.

Signals, of around 30 volts as a safe minimum if of steep wave front, ifapplied to input terminal 40 will cause the counting ring to count bysuccessive firing and extinguishing of the tubes, the last con-ductingtube representing, by its place in the ring, the sum of the signalsentered.

Theprincipal feature'of thiscounting ring is that signals'of-u'nusuallyhigh potential will fire only the primedtube,which*'issupposed to be an o o e Theivalues of circuit elements'givenare exemplary only and in no way are tobe deemedto limit the principleof the invention as othersetsof circuit values may; easily beestablished; from those.

ivenfbyone skilled; in the art. The dominant control'of the control gridelectrode over the aux.-

-"I he ring described is capable ofcounti'ng impulses impressed on itevenly at therate of 10,000 per second and to perform in a correctmanner eventhough large variation in pulse size is encountered. Thisprovides a great safety factor inasmuch as in previously known gas tubecounting rings, a signal of exceptionally high potential would not onlyfire a primed tube, but one or more others that were not primed. v

" aipositive potential signal is received on line 3T it is'impressedon'the auxiliary'grid electrodes 23 of all the tubes-of the ring. Thenormal po'- tential jbias on the control grids 22 of the tubes is fsuiiicient'to dominate in'any tube but the one succeeding inthe ring fromthe conducting tube. Thus,'--inf 'the event the 0 tube isconducting itscathode will rise in. potential to a point determined by thiecathode-anode potential supply resistors. Withth'resistances shown thismeans a rise from about l'fvolt'negative to 76, volts positive. Thischanges the potential on the control grid of the fl tube from a normal30 volts negative to 2 volts positive, leaving onlythe auxiliary grid incontrol 7 y ts"negativel the"jl tube will become conductingextinguishingthe 0tube The same action continuesaroundthe ring-f V Whilejthe deviceherein'shown and described is admirbly adapted to fulfill the objectsprimarily ith a f30volt negative potential. When this is duced by areceived inpjut impulse to around 16' stated, it is to be understoodthatitis not intended to confine the invention to the one form orembodiment herein disclosed, for it is susceptible of embodiment invarious forms all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is:

1. A counting device including a plurality of gaseous discharge electron--tubes each having at least an anode, a cathode, a dominant controlelectrode and a subordinate control electrode; circuits connecting thetubes, cathode of one to dominant control electrode of another, in asuccession; means, supplying anode-cathode potential to the tubessufficient to cause conduction therein; means supplyingbias potential tothe dominant control electrodes normally suflicient to preventconduction in the tubes, said bias being relieved in a tube through theconnection of its dominant control electrode to the cathode of apreceding tube and when the preceding tube is conducting; meanscapacitatively coupling each subordinate control electrode to a commoninput conductor; and means supplying bias potential'to each subordinatecontrolielectrode sufiicient to prevent conductionin a tube when thebiaso'fits asso ciated dominantcontrolelectrode has been relieved, exceptwhen a positive potential impulse signal is impressed thereon throughsaid input conductor. I f I V 2. The device of claim lwhe'rein thecathodedominant control electrode connections form the succession oftubes into'a'ring, H 3. The deviceiof claim 1 in which the tubes aresupplied with anode potential through a common resistor which causes theanodes of all tubes to fall in potential as a tube becomes'conducting,permittingthe dominant control electrode to resume control in anypreviously conducting tube.

4. The'device'oi claim l in which the means coupling each'of thesubordinate control electrodes to the input conductor includes acapacitor. .5. The device of claim 1' in which means, include ing anegative potential source which may be selectivelyapplied to a cathode.of a tube, is provided to render a Selected tube conducting.

' ERNEST V. 'GULDEN.

I REFERENCES CITED The following'references' are of record'in the fileof this patent:

V UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,404,918 Overbeck (B) July 30,1946 2,442,872 Giansante June 8, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS v Number Country;1 Date

